This piece was a commission for a fellow Manx compatriot living in London – so truth be be told this was a fun one to do as we know just the kind of thing us humble islanders like. The idea behind this one is pretty simple as they say the Isle of Man is just 80,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock in the middle of the Irish Sea. Which is completely untrue. Only about 72,000 are alcoholics…

As you can tell we’ve really gone to town on this piece and done plenty of screen printing, a little embroidery and some hand work & distressing – for that ‘found in an attic’ aged look. We’ve seen fit to include Blinky the fish (from the Simpsons) as Sellafield (a nuclear reprocessing plant) is pretty much exactly opposite us on the Cumbrian coast and has always been a cause for concern for those living on the Island. We’ve included some mysterious map co-ordinates that should hopefully have a little meaning to the recipient along with various other elements (like the triskele and ambigram in the bottom right corner) which should hold some intrigue for him. I’m also still slightly obsessed with the distressed looking crests so am particularly proud of how they’ve come out.

Cling to the Rock ( To remember list)

Cling to the Rock (To visit list detail)

In fact, the biggest shame about this piece is the fact that we forgot to take pictures before we sent it to the framer so most of the shots we have (obviously!) feature a lot of reflections and don’t really do it any justice. Oh well, you live and learn. On the plus side though we’ve really enjoyed working on maps so expect more before too long…